Nebraska Information Analysis Center

Nebraska Information Analysis Center

In 2007, the Nebraska Information Analysis Center (NIAC) was designated by the Governor as the state’s Fusion Center and is housed by the Nebraska State Patrol. The mission of the NIAC is to provide an avenue for all state law enforcement agencies and participating private partners to receive, validate, analyze and disseminate intelligence information for all crimes and all hazards. NIAC was formed through the Department of Homeland Security grants and funds re-distributed to the Nebraska State Patrol by the nine Planning Exercise and Training (PET) Regions within the state. The Superintendent's Office of the Nebraska State Patrol committed the Agency’s Intelligence Unit to create the infrastructure needed to move this project forward.

Today the NIAC remains a collaborative effort of federal, state and local agencies working in partnership to detect, prevent, apprehend and respond to criminal and/or terrorist activity, as well as promote the resiliency of Nebraska critical infrastructure from an all-crimes and all-hazards basis. The mission of the NIAC is to collect, evaluate, analyze, and disseminate information and intelligence regarding criminal and terrorist activity to federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies, other Fusion Centers, and to public and private entities, as appropriate.

Lt. Jim DeFreece is assigned as the Fusion Center Director to provide day-to-day leadership of the NIAC processes which include the enforcement of the Privacy Policy in consultation with the NIAC Privacy Officer. The NIAC receives strategic guidance from its governance board made up of the senior leadership from the Lincoln Police Department (LPD), Omaha Police Department (OPD), Nebraska Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

In 2015, in the interests of inter-agency law enforcement information-sharing designed to support Nebraska law enforcement operations, the NIAC continued to deploy the Nebraska Fusion Information Network (NFIN) which serves as a tool for collecting intelligence information from all officers across the state. This system allows vetted law enforcement officers to input and query intelligence information, Comprehensive Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR) and Field Intelligence Cards via a secure web portal. This inter-jurisdictional system integrates data from many state and local data sources including NSP, LPD, OPD, North Platte Police Department, Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, Gothenburg Police Department, and the University of Nebraska Police Department. In 2015, the NIAC continued to deploy NFIN by offering training to allied law enforcement agencies and continued the expansion of NFIN-participating law enforcement agencies.

In the interests of homeland security, infrastructure protection, and public safety, the NIAC has a menu of product lines which it shares with law enforcement and public/private sector partners to promote situational awareness relating to the dynamic threat landscape. The NIAC continues to use the Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN), to securely share sensitive but unclassified (SBU) intelligence and resources, such as Active Shooter and cyber-security materials, with its law enforcement and vetted public/private sector partners. HSIN-Nebraska is divided into For Official Use Only (FOUO) and Law Enforcement Sensitive (LES) areas.